Day Is Done

Finally saw the full movie, i had to go through all the vicissitudes of a heavy sleep to finish it but the closure was all worth it. It is really weird scrolling through my mind and constructing my thoughts about the experience of watching this. I'm honestly not too sure if what I feel right now (Positive/Negative) as I have no word. The last few minutes was fine, even thought the whole musical will feel very weird and out of place. The already enigmatic Mike Kelley's invite to plunge into the edgy world of personal nightmares taking cue from series of high school yearbook photographs. Each sequences is reflection of the other, but indirectly, as if through another reflection, through the pictures in the script. It was a tedious chore to sit through as Mike recreated the pictures by casting actors and make it a wacky live action of sorts with absurd symmetry of set design, accompanied by songs. And that chugga chugga chugga chugga chugga chugga is now stuck in my head with that song over it (not as a troll) but simply with respect for the artist.

Mike Kelley is one of the greatest artists of his generation. If you've ever seen an exhibition of his oddly sinister psychological portraits of plush toys or obsessive post-pop combination paintings you'll know what you're in for here: An absolute maelstrom of implicit and explicit images dredged from the highs and lows of American consumer culture.

Day is Done is not an easy film to describe. All of the action takes place within the confines of a modern Californian high school. The student body made up of cheerleaders, jocks, vampires, witches, skinheads and ballerinas whose only common ground is that they all worship Satan.

They also sing arias, perform pantomimes that are described by inter-titles as 'reconstructions', give stand up routines and argue about race theory.

At three hours Day is Done is not an easy watch, but it is certainly not forgettable and for fans of Kelley, it stands as one of the artist's most unified and powerful works.